Bali tripping
This past holiday I met up with my good mate Aiden Leppan in Phuket, Thailand. Aiden is one of my best friends and we grew up together living at Yellow Sands just outside East London. I had flown over to Thailand to help him sail some family and friends around the Andaman Sea area off Phuket on his old man's 58ft Nexus catamaran, "Abundant Life".
Before we set off sailing, we had some spare time to ourselves so decided to take a quick 5 day trip to Bali as tickets there from Thailand are dirt cheap. It was both our first times going to Bali and we were super excited to go, even if it was just for 5 short days. Having both spent 2 solid months aboard "Abundant Life" in the Mentawais last year surfing perfect Lances Left, Maccas, HT's and many others, along with Aiden spending another month cruising around Nias and the Banyuk islands in May this year, scoring beyond epic waves basically to himself, our expectations were quite high...
Arriving in Bali we didn't have any plans on where we should base ourselves and told the taxi driver from the airport to "take us to the beach", preferably in the Uluwatu region. Wisely enough, the guy took us to Balangan and we quickly found a place to stay for 100 000 rupiah (R80) a night that was RIGHT ON THE BEACH overlooking this epic left hander! The waves were pumping when we got there, a solid 5ft. Balangan ended up being such an epic joint that we stayed there the entire 5 days. There are two major take off spots and on bigger days they connect up perfectly and the wave runs for about 500m down a fringing reef to an idyllic Bali beach. The beach is lined with cheap accommodation, cheap restuarants and there are a few guys who take photos of the surfing everyday all day. Balangan is special because it is tucked away in a cove that is located away from the madness and commercialism of places such as Kuta or even Ulu's. It seems a lot more peaceful and unspoilt at Balangan.
The waves were never smaller than 4ft when we were there, the wind was ALWAYS offshore and the two days where it was 7ft+ the wave was as perfect as Supertubes, a mirror image in fact. The crowds here also aren't too bad and the bigger days seemed to have fewer people out! The smaller days were the most crowded, 40-50 people in the water (mostly kooks!), where the biggers day there weren't even 20 people surfing! (no kooks!)
Aiden and I mostly surfed Balangan as it was right on our doorstep, we're both goofy footers and love our lefts! We also missioned on scooters to Uluwatu, Dreamland and Kuta for surfs.
Such a sick trip.
Definitely doing it again.
Michal
(NB. All photos taken at Balangan)
Before we set off sailing, we had some spare time to ourselves so decided to take a quick 5 day trip to Bali as tickets there from Thailand are dirt cheap. It was both our first times going to Bali and we were super excited to go, even if it was just for 5 short days. Having both spent 2 solid months aboard "Abundant Life" in the Mentawais last year surfing perfect Lances Left, Maccas, HT's and many others, along with Aiden spending another month cruising around Nias and the Banyuk islands in May this year, scoring beyond epic waves basically to himself, our expectations were quite high...
Arriving in Bali we didn't have any plans on where we should base ourselves and told the taxi driver from the airport to "take us to the beach", preferably in the Uluwatu region. Wisely enough, the guy took us to Balangan and we quickly found a place to stay for 100 000 rupiah (R80) a night that was RIGHT ON THE BEACH overlooking this epic left hander! The waves were pumping when we got there, a solid 5ft. Balangan ended up being such an epic joint that we stayed there the entire 5 days. There are two major take off spots and on bigger days they connect up perfectly and the wave runs for about 500m down a fringing reef to an idyllic Bali beach. The beach is lined with cheap accommodation, cheap restuarants and there are a few guys who take photos of the surfing everyday all day. Balangan is special because it is tucked away in a cove that is located away from the madness and commercialism of places such as Kuta or even Ulu's. It seems a lot more peaceful and unspoilt at Balangan.
The waves were never smaller than 4ft when we were there, the wind was ALWAYS offshore and the two days where it was 7ft+ the wave was as perfect as Supertubes, a mirror image in fact. The crowds here also aren't too bad and the bigger days seemed to have fewer people out! The smaller days were the most crowded, 40-50 people in the water (mostly kooks!), where the biggers day there weren't even 20 people surfing! (no kooks!)
Aiden and I mostly surfed Balangan as it was right on our doorstep, we're both goofy footers and love our lefts! We also missioned on scooters to Uluwatu, Dreamland and Kuta for surfs.
Such a sick trip.
Definitely doing it again.
Michal
(NB. All photos taken at Balangan)
